Crystal Cove Beach Engagement Session

Alyssa and Ryan had an incredible Crystal Cove Beach Engagement Session during golden hour and these photos are adorable!

Destinations with Dana

Hey, there! Welcome to the blog. My name is Dana and I am a Monterey-based destination wedding photographer. I love photographing weddings for adorable couples who enjoy every moment captured. Since 2018, I have photographed weddings and sessions in several different states and countries. Being the one to photograph these weddings brings me such joy and every couple I get to serve leaves a special mark in my life as a destination wedding photographer

I love photographing weddings and portrait sessions and then blogging them. This is so I can tell the story of the couple that they can share with their friends and family, and of course inspire you! I hope this blog gives you ideas and inspiration for your upcoming weddings, session, or travel!

Alyssa and Ryan : The Couple

Have you ever looked at a couple walking by and thought “They just look like they belong together?”. They are holding hands, talking, enjoying each other’s company, and just look like they are meant to be together? That is how I feel about these two.

Ryan and Alyssa met at Church way back in 2013. After Ryan moved away, they remained Facebook friends but really did not stay in direct contact with each other. It was not until he reached back out a few years later (many years later) that he wanted to have a talk about bible study. Their first phone call? Three hours! After talking with each other on the phone for several hours each time they did talk, and connecting together for weeks on end, he finally asked her for coffee while she was in Boston for a trip.

Alyssa and Ryan found me through a podcast episode I was on, you can hear it here. Alyssa heard this podcast episode and also found me on Instagram. We connected via social media and learned much more about each other. Such as our connection to the military, traveling blogs, and that she even got her wedding dress from Epiphany! I was so excited that these two hired me to be their photographer and I can’t wait to capture their special day!

Crystal Cove Beach Engagement Session

While I was in California for a wedding and for Taylor Swift’s show in Santa Clara, I flew down to Santa Ana for a day to photograph these two’s engagement portrait session at Crystal Cove. They were so kind and picked me up at our hotel and then took me out to dinner before the shoot began. At dinner, we got to know each other more. We talked military stories, what their goals were for the wedding, and I loved hearing about how excited they were about finally being together in person after being apart for so long!

Our session together was incredible. We met up with their videographer and captured some great moments together along the cliffs and on the beach. Golden hour was a dream and it was so great getting to serve this couple and photograph some lovely moments. It only made me excited even more for their wedding! For now, I will share some of my favorites from this shoot!